Strange Life of a Cat

Chapter 24

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The person Wei Ling was calling was the policeman Zheng Tan had met last time. He was Wei Ling"s senior in martial arts.

Zheng Tan had heard Wei Ling address him as "Walnut" in past calls, but did not know the guy"s real name. From the sound of things, this "Walnut" would be moving up the ranks if he cracked this case.

Apparently, he was in line for a promotion already last month, but Walnut was stubborn. He refused to accept the promotion, like he said earlier, if he couldn"t solve this case.

Zheng Tan"s opinion of the man was that he probably got kicked in the head by a donkey. He had made all the right friends, and the promotion was bound to happen. Yet, he had to be stubborn.

Wei Ling called Brother Walnut several times, but his phone was turned off. Wei Ling frowned; he was becoming worried. He thought about it for a moment, then dialed another number, this time to someone else.

They talked in code that only they understood. Zheng Tan was lost, but he wasn"t interested anyway. He already did all he could do, the rest was on Wei Ling.

He yawned and jumped onto the sofa, planning to take a little nap.

Cats spent most of the day sleeping. Normally, Zheng Tan got up at the same time as Jiao Yuan. He was up an hour early today. He felt he owed it to himself to make up for the hour of lost sleep.

This was his form of ODD.

Whatever, Zheng Tan told himself. He was cat now, and cats ate when they were hungry, slept when they were tired, ran around outside and caused mayhem at home.

Apparently, even though Walnut switched off his phone, Wei Ling had ways of pinpointing his location. Possibly through a GPS of some sort. Wei Ling was on the phone, asking someone to find Walnut for him.

About ten minutes later, Wei Ling found out where Walnut was.

He picked up his coat and headed towards the door. He stopped when he was there and turned to Zheng Tan: "Want to go out to play?"

Zheng Tan was dozing off, but jumped up immediately when he heard this. He loved the rare opportunity to go elsewhere. Staying on campus everyday was boring. Looking at the same scenery day after day made him feel confined. This was not good, psychologically speaking.

Jiao Yuan and Gu Youzi were not his responsibility today. Papa Jiao had cla.s.s in the late morning and would pick up the children afterwards. Mam Jiao was feeling better after two days in the hospital. She was recovering well and could probably leave the hospital in a week.

Papa Jiao knew a resident in the hospital from a joint study he conducted with a professor in the medical sciences. He asked the resident to look after Mama Jiao when he was in cla.s.s.

Wei Ling called Papa Jiao to inform him he was taking the cat out on a little trip. Naturally, Papa Jiao did not oppose. He told the two to be careful and asked Wei Ling to look after Zheng Tan.

Wei Ling was in a hurry this time, so he decided to use the motorcycle he parked in the Eastern Quarters bike shed.

This motorbike seemed completely normal upon first glance. It was plain looking and wouldn"t earn a second glance from anybody. Zheng Tan felt it only looked normal. Wei Ling had modified it, and it worked well. At least it wouldn"t be like Yi Xin"s bike.

However, when Zheng Tan stood in front of the motorcycle, he was a bit unsure. The thing didn"t have a basket in front, nor did it have a cabinet in the back. He looked around and jumped on the seat. He pressed down on it. He supposed this would have to do.

Wei Ling put on a helmet. He looked at the black cat sitting on the bike seat, then looked at his motorbike. He went into the security guards" office and emerged later with an old red travel backpack. There were already two hole on it.

"Luckily the security guard had a backpack I could borrow." Wei Ling patted the shabby bag. "Hop in."

Zheng Tan was very displeased. He grudgingly jumped in. The bag had not been used in a while and had a moldy smell to it. Stains were everywhere.

Zheng Tan didn"t know where Wei Ling was headed. They were on a path he had never taken before. The building they pa.s.sed were unfamiliar to him. He poked his head out of the bag and checked out the retreating scenery.

For any motor vehicle, the downtown area was a nuisance because of the abundance of traffic lights. Even though the motorcycle was fast, it was not spared from having to stop at the lights.

As they were waiting for a light to turn green, a bus pa.s.sed by and stopped in the lane beside them. Someone was eating an orange near the window on Zheng Tan"s side. He opened the bus window to spit out the seeds. The seed traveled through the air and hit Zheng Tan right on the head.

Zheng Tan: "…" F*ck! These people who spit on the ground should be fined to the point they were broke.

"Christ! The dude on the motorcycle has a cat on his back! A black cat." The guy eating oranges exclaimed loudly.

"Where?"

"Wow, it really is a cat. I thought it was a life-like stuffed animal."

"Mom, I want to look at the cat!"

"Stop squis.h.i.+ng over here. It"s just a cat."

"Move over, let me see it."

At this time and age, cellphones weren"t "smart" like they would become in ten years. People didn"t have their heads buried down on public transport. Instantly, all the people who were bored on the bus were looking at Zheng Tan whose head was showing from the bag.

With the red backpack as a backdrop, the black cat head was very eye-catching.

Zheng Tan felt on display, like a monkey at the zoo.

The bus driver looked outside then looked back to ahead of him. He reminded the pa.s.sengers the bus was about to restart again. But no one listened to him.

The light finally turned green. The motorcycle shot out, leaving the bus behind it. Zheng Tan caught a final glance at the bus. The bus was overtaken by a small car and the driver slammed on the brakes. The guy who was eating an orange was too busy looking out of his window and banged his head on the seat in front of him.

Zheng Tan felt better.

Outside downtown, there were less traffic lights and Wei Ling could pick up some speed.

The area was mostly occupied by factories. They were reaching the third ring road. Zheng Tan could tell from signs around him that this area was to be demolished soon. For reasons concerning the environment, the city government planned to move all the factories away. There was a lake in this area and developers were already targeting the soon-to-be free s.p.a.ces around here.

Wei Ling parked his motorcycle next to the side door of a factory. He looked around and took out his phone to make a call.

The factory in front of them was an old food processing plant. The building was all that was left. The factory had relocated recently. Only the pictures on the walls hinted to what used to happen here.

Wei Ling called Walnut, who still did not pick up. However, Wei Ling was sure he was here. The factory doors were shut, so he had to jump over the wall.

"Follow behind me. Let me know if someone is approaching. Of course, cover me at the right times if you could…actually never mind, you don"t know what I"m saying."

After instructing Zheng Tan, Wei Ling jumped right over the wall. He moved with ease, making it seem like a simple task.

Zheng Tan jumped on to the wall and looked around. He came here out of pure curiosity and he didn"t need to cover his tracks like Wei Ling. He was cat after all; people weren"t wary of cats. There were plenty of strays around here anyway. He saw quite a few on their way here. A black cat on the wall wasn"t anything new.

Zheng Tan had taken off his collar before leaving the house. He didn"t look anything different from a normal cat. Even if he was spotted, the person who spotted him would likely just think he looked quite large, instead of suspecting anything.

The factory was empty except for rubbish on the floor. There were broken gla.s.s and bricks on the floor, flyers that were turning yellow and production waste. The smell of additives and chemicals still hung in the air. The deserted factory looked desolate.

Zheng Tan followed Wei Ling. He heard sounds— sounds made by humans. There was some moaning, like the sound someone would make after being beaten. Luckily, it didn"t appear to be made by Walnut.

Fifty yards from here, there were at least three people behind a wall. Zheng Tan heard them speak in hushed voices. They were making a plan to wait for the person in the warehouse ahead of them to come out, before attacking him.

Zheng Tan looked over to the warehouse. It had few windows, and all of them were shut. He would probably make a lot of noise if he went inside. Was Walnut in there? The moaning was coming from there.

The people behind the wall were oblivious to Wei Ling"s presence. They were too focused on the warehouse door to notice anything else. Or maybe it was because Wei Ling was too well hidden. It was difficult to notice him even when he moved quickly.

As Wei Ling hid in the shadows, debating whether to take care of the men behind the wall first, Zheng Tan noticed the exhaust fan on warehouse wall.

It wasn"t blocked by barb wire like the windows and doors, and he could just about squeeze through the gaps.

Should he do it?

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